Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T13:21:07.752Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

I - Introduction: Background and Problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2013

Richard Rutherford
Get access

Extract

      EPIC
      I have lived in important places, times
      When great events were decided, who owned
      That half a rood of rock, a no-man's land
      Surrounded by our pitchfork-armed claims.
      I heard the Duffys shouting ‘Damn your soul’
      And old McCabe stripped to the waist, seen
      Step the plot defying blue cast-steel—
      ‘Here is the march along these iron stones’
      That was the year of the Munich bother. Which
      Was more important? I inclined
      To lose my faith in Ballyrush and Gortin
      Till Homer's ghost came whispering to my mind
      He said: I made the Iliad from such
      A local row. Gods make their own importance.1
Patrick Kavanagh's short poem confronts the reader with a number of questions which will preoccupy us in this survey. The Homeric poems show us a world which in many respects seems primitive and remote; even if the expedition of the Greeks against Troy really happened, even if it took place on the scale which the Iliad asserts, and lasted the full ten-year span, it would still be ‘a local row’ compared with later historical conflicts, ancient or modern. Can the bad-tempered disputes of warrior chiefs, the violent revenge of a savage and undisciplined soldier, the lies and posturing of a vagabond rogue, still move or excite an audience today? It will be necessary to show here some of the ways in which Homer gives the conflict at Troy, and the homecoming of Odysseus, a timeless importance, so that these mere episodes in the vanished heroic age – long past even for the poet and his audience – become microcosmic images of human life. The vast subject of Homer's influence upon later western literature cannot be even superficially addressed here; but occasional comparisons and illustrations may help to show how much subsequent poets and artists have found in the Iliad and the Odyssey to enlighten and inspire their own work.

Type
Introduction
Information
New Surveys in the Classics , Volume 41: Homer (Second Edition) , 2011 , pp. 1 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Kavanagh 1964: 136.

2 Page 1959 provided a learned and highly readable discussion of the earlier progress of these debates, but is now seriously out of date. For an authoritative account see Latacz 2004 (translated from a 2002 German work; it should be noted that subsequent German editions include updating). The annual journal Studia Troica publishes the results of the ongoing excavations at the site of Troy. See also the brief overview in M. L. West 2011b: 97–112.

3 See especially the collection of essays edited by Foxhall and Davies 1984; also Mellink 1986; Kirk 1990: 36–50. For a penetrating essay which combines archaeological and literary finesse, see Sherratt 1990. A very different approach is adopted by Fehling 1991, who seeks to recover the original core of the story, dismissing historicity.

4 On Nestor's narrative, see Bölte 1934; Hainsworth 1993: 296–8. Frame 2010 is a 600-page monograph on Nestor.

5 Much historical information is painlessly presented in Morris and Powell 1997 (esp. Bennet 1997 on the Bronze Age; Morris 1997 on the Iron Age is less rewarding).

6 1183 is the date accepted by Eratosthenes and Apollodorus, but many other dates were canvassed; it is certainly hard to see how any could have been supported by proof. Burkert 1995 discusses ancient dating-systems and the theories about the Trojan war, concluding that none of the dates suggested has any historical basis.

7 On the cultural amalgam, see Kirk 1962: 179–92; on inherited diction, M. L. West 1988 (earlier Page 1959, ch. 6). On religion, see M. P. Nilsson 1932; Burkert 1985, ch. 1 (but p. 46 offers a warning: ‘Startling correspondences with the later Greek [religious] evidence stand side by side with things totally unintelligible. Greek religion is rooted in the Minoan–Mycenaean age and yet not to be equated with it.’)

8 R. Carpenter 1946; Kirk 1970, 1974; Bremmer 1994: 55–7; Hansen 1997, 2002, esp. introduction (10–12 on problems of definition).

9 Woodhouse 1930; Calhoun 1939; Page 1973a; Hölscher 1989. Csapo 2005 is a sophisticated account of definitions and theories of ‘myth’, including discussion of folk-tale theory as expounded by Vladimir Propp and adapted by many classical scholars (e.g. Burkert 1979): see e.g. Csapo 2005: 57–67 on the Cyclops in the Odyssey and parallel versions.

10 Vansina 1965, 1985; Henige 1974. For outstanding applications to archaic and classical Greece, see Thomas 1989, esp. chs. 1–2; also O. Murray 2001.

11 Bowra 1957: 520, 530–7; cf. Finley et al. 1964; Hainsworth 1984, 1993: 32–53. See also Taplin 1992: 26 n. 24.

12 Finley et al. 1964; cf. Finley 1973, ch. 1, ‘Myth, Memory and History’.

13 Hainsworth 1984, esp. 117, 121.

14 Il. 20.306–8; cf. h Aphrod. 196–7; P. M. Smith 1981 (against historical reference) and Faulkner 2008: 3–7 (in favour). Other possible cases are much less plainly marked: see e.g. Janko 1992: 19, 382, etc., arguing for disguised compliments to families claiming heroic descent; M. L. West 1997a: 628–9. On later, similar claims, see Thomas 1989: 100–8, 173–95.

15 For early genealogies and lists see Jeffery 1961: 59–61; Hornblower 1994: 9–12.

16 For a survey of these, see now M. L. West 2011c: 28–37.

17 Il. 6.155–202; 9.527–99; 4.370–400; 19.95–133 (cf. 14.249–61, etc.); Od. 12.69–72 (not an exhaustive list).

18 But for a different approach to such references, see Scodel 2002: 90–123.

19 Od. 1.29–43, 298–300; 3.193–8, 248–312; 4. 512–37; 11.387–434; 24.20–2, 95–7, 198–201; Garvie 1986: ix–xii.

20 Willcock 1964, 1977; Braswell 1971. This position is opposed by Lang 1983; also by Slatkin 1991, ch. 2, discussing the specific case in Book 1.

21 See Meuli 1921: 87–115; Page 1955: 2; Braswell 1988: 6–8; M. L. West 2005.

22 For bibliography on this speech, see Reichel 1994: 111 n. 1; Alden 2000: ch. 7.

23 J. T. Kakridis 1949: 11–42; March 1987: 27–46.

24 Bacchyl. 5.94–154; Aesch. Cho. 594–601; Ov. Met. 8. 260–546; Apollod. 1.8.2. Bremmer 1988 argues that this version is post-Homeric.

25 Bowra 1930: 19–23; similarly Hainsworth 1993: 56–7.

26 See further Schadewaldt 1938: 139–42; Rosner 1976; Bannert 1981; Swain 1988; Griffin 1995; and Alden 2000, ch. 7.

27 The standard work is Chantraine 1948–53; see also Monro 1891. More accessible are Palmer 1962, 1980: 83–101; Janko 1992: 8–19; Horrocks 1997; Colvin 2007: 49–53, 192–201; Willi 2011.

28 Leumann 1950 discusses possible cases. For examples, see Palmer 1962: 104–5: e.g. κύμβαχος, ‘helmet’ or ‘crown’, correctly so used at Il. 15.536, misused at 5.586 (cf. M. L. West 2011c: 164).

29 Finkelberg 2012; Wachter 2012.

30 George 2003 is an important new edition of the Gilgamesh epic; more accessible is his annotated Penguin translation (1999). For discussion, see Burkert 1988 and other important papers collected in Burkert 2001; also M. L. West 1988, 1997a; Burkert 1992, 2004.

31 Foster 2005: 436–86; see also López-Ruiz 2010.

32 Louden 2011 is a detailed study of parallels between the Odyssey and the Old Testament, especially Genesis.

33 Dalley 1989: 144; George 1999: 110; Burkert 1992: 117–18. Cf. Il. 12.322–8, Sarpedon's speech (quoted below, pp. 58–9).

34 Dalley 1989: 93; George 1999: 65 (cf. Il. 18.317); Currie 2012: 551. For his journey in search of immortality, see George 1999: 70–99.

35 M. L. West 1966: 18–31, 1988; see also Walcot 1966; Kirk 1970: 118–31.

36 M. L. West 1988; Burkert 1992; Penglase 1994. On modes of transmission, see West 1997a: ch. 12 (to my mind the best chapter of the book); Lane Fox 2008: 376–80 tells a very different story.

37 A point forcibly made by Osborne 1993, reviewing Burkert 1992. See also Dowden 2001, reviewing M. L. West 1997a. Lane Fox 2008 engages polemically with the question of Near Eastern influence, urging the case that Greeks devised many of their myths themselves, partly to account for places and natural features that they encountered in travelling.

38 M. L. West 1997a, 2007a.

39 Burkert 1992: 96–8; M. L. West 1997a: 182–4; accepted even by Lane Fox 2008: 353–4. Kelly 2008a denies their conclusions.

40 Il. 14.315–28; Dalley 1989: 77–80; George 1999: 47–50. On this, Kelly 2008a: 289–90 is not entirely persuasive.

41 Page 1955: ch. 1, 1973a; Fehling 1977: 87–100; Burkert 1979: 156 n. 13.

42 Page 1955: 14.

43 See Page 1973a; Griffin 1977; Hansen 1997. See more generally Stanford 1963, on the evolution of the character Odysseus over the centuries.

44 Burkert 1979: 30–4.

45 This view has been repeatedly challenged by M. L. West, e.g. 1966: 40–8; 2011b: 194–5, 212–26; and now 2012: 226, with list in n. 3 of passages in which he thinks Homer imitates Hesiod (some of these are very unpersuasive, though I agree that the light-hearted theomachy of the Iliad presupposes an earlier and more serious treatment – not necessarily by Hesiod).

46 M. L. West 1973a: 191–2; G. P. Edwards 1971, ch. 8. More generally on Hesiod in comparison with Homer see Wade-Gery 1959; O. Murray 1980, chs. 3–4; Millett 1984; Rosen 1997; Clay 2003; for many aspects, see Montanari et al. 2009.

47 So e.g. Danek 1998: 231.

48 M. L. West has provided an admirable Loeb edition (M. L. West 2003b). For commentaries on the whole collection, see Allen, Halliday, and Sikes 1936 and Càssola 1975.

49 The fragmentary hymn to Dionysus (1) may be among the earliest, though, because so much is lost, much is uncertain. Like the hymn to Hermes, it presents the resolution of conflicts among the gods (in this case Dionysus and Hera). Recent papyrus publications mean that older editions of this hymn are out of date: see M. L. West 2001a, 2011a.

50 On the hymn to Demeter, see N. J. Richardson 1974 and H. Foley 1994; on the hymn to Aphrodite, Faulkner 2008; on the hymn to Hermes, a commentary is in preparation by Oliver Thomas. N. J. Richardson 2010 is briefer (covering the hymns to Apollo, Hermes, Aphrodite). More discursive treatments: Janko 1982 (very technical); Thalmann 1984; Clay 1989, 1997; and Parker 1991. A new collection of essays is Faulkner 2011 (note esp. the editor's review of scholarship, 1–25). See also N. J. Richardson 2007 on Hermes.

51 Editions include Bernabé 1987; Davies 1988; and especially M. L. West 2003a (Loeb). See Griffin 1977; Davies 1989; Burgess 2001; Dowden 2004; M. L. West 2013.

52 Apart from West's Loeb, the summary is translated in Burgess 2001: 177–80, and paraphrased in Dowden 2004: 198–200.

53 But note that Burgess 2001: ch. 1 argues in detail that the poems as read by Proclus (in the fifth century ad?) may have been significantly shorter than the originals. Proof is lacking, but a case for caution has been well made.

54 Callim. Epigr. 28 Pfeiffer; Hor. Ars P. 132, 136; Pfeiffer 1968: 227–30.

55 West 1985; R. L. Fowler 1998; Hunter 2005; Hirschberger 2004 (reviewed in West 2007b); Janko 2012; I. C. Rutherford 2012.

56 Janko 1982: 221–5, 1992: 14.

57 The only modern commentary is Russo 1965. The date of the work is unknown: it is generally put c.570 or somewhat earlier (see Janko 1986). For a lively essay on the Shield, see Martin 2005.

58 Hes. Op. 650–9; M. L. West 1995: 218–19 with Janko 1982: 94–8 and Janko 2012: 37. For doubts about the war, see e.g. J. Hall 2007: 1–8, 20–1.

59 Crielaard 1995.

60 For example, the long-standing debate over the presence of hoplite tactics in the Iliad, on which see van Wees 1994 (pro) and Janko 1992 on 13.126–35 (contra). See generally Kirk 1960.

61 Il. 9.404–5, with Morgan 1990: ch. 4. The arguments of Burkert 1976 that the Iliad must postdate 715 or even 663, based on the reference to Egyptian Thebes in the same speech, are rejected by Janko 1992: 14 n. 20 and by Kelly 2006.

62 ML no. 1 = CEG 1.454 (date misprinted; see corrections in the editor's second volume), with discussions e.g. in Powell 1991: 163–8; Lane Fox 2008: 157–8.

63 See pp. 30–1 below.

64 Details in N. J. Richardson 1974; see also Faulkner 2008: 38–40.

65 Janko 1982: 195–6, 200, 228–32.

66 See Janko 2012, esp. 34–5. In the first edition of this Survey I was one of those who thus misrepresented his position. It must be said that the presentation in his 1982 book does not make the hypothetical nature of the argument wholly clear.

67 E.g. M. L. West 1995, 2012; Janko replies in Janko 2012: 36–8.

68 Minchin 2001 explores the storytelling and structural techniques by which the oral poet gives his song an organized form and compelling power.

69 Marg 1956; Maehler 1963; Griffin 1980: 100–2; Macleod 1983; Ford 1992; Halliwell 2012: ch. 2.

70 See e.g. schol. EV on Od. 8.63; Hardie 1986: 54–5.

71 M. L. West 1981.

72 Wade-Gery 1952: ch. 1; Webster 1958: 267–75. Cf. Taplin 1992: 39–41.

73 Fairweather 1974; Lefkowitz 1981: 12–24. On the traditions about the poet's name and career, see Allen 1924: 11–41; Schwartz 1940; and other material cited in Burkert 1987: 57 n. 1. M. L. West 1999 has argued that the name is a fiction, derived from a word referring to ‘an assembly of the people with which poetic contests were associated, a sort of eisteddfod’ (375). The traditions about Homer are discussed in detail by Graziosi 2002.

74 On Homeridai, see Pind. Nem. 2.1–5 and scholia; Pl. Ion 530d, Resp. 10.599e. See further Allen 1924: 42–50; Burkert 1972; Fehling 1979 (total scepticism); Graziosi 2002: 201–17.

75 Kohl 1917.

76 Il. 13.11–14; cf. Janko's note in Janko 1992; Kirk 1962: 273.

77 M. M. Austin 1970; Braun 1982; S. West 1988: 65; Boardman 1999: ch. 4.

78 See Dodds 1968; Myres 1958; Davison 1962b; Hainsworth 1969: passim; A. Parry 1971; Heubeck 1974; H. W. Clarke 1981.

79 Wolf 1985. Wolf was partly anticipated by Robert Wood (1769) and others: see A. Parry 1971: x–xiv.

80 I intend to say little about the problems or objections raised by the hardline analysts, many of which now seem pedantic and trivial. Some cases which remain problematic are discussed in later chapters. For a pre-Parryist treatment, see Bowra 1930: ch. 5; Page 1955: passim; and a more recent survey by H. W. Clarke 1981: ch. 4. Van Thiel 1982 and 1988 document analytic criticism exhaustively; Dawe 1993 also maintains an analytic position with reference to the Odyssey. West 2011c and elsewhere argues that the analysts correctly identified problems but erred in explaining these by multiple authorship rather than gradual revision and rewriting by the master poet.

81 A. Parry 1971: x–xxi.

82 M. Parry 1971 (Milman Parry's collected papers, with invaluable introduction by Adam Parry) remains fundamental. His followers are too numerous to list here, but see the bibliography in J. M. Foley 1988. For clear summaries of his theories, see Page 1959: 222–5; Hainsworth 1968: ch. 1.

83 For more detail on Homer's metre, see M. L. West 1982: 35–9, abridged as M. L. West 1987: 19–23; also M. L. West 1997b (with more emphasis on aesthetic aspects). See also Hainsworth 1969: 27–8; Kirk 1985: 17–37; R. B. Rutherford 1992: 78–85. A readable essay on the subject is provided by Bowra 1962.

84 Macleod 1982: 38.

85 Eliot 1932, a classic statement which still demands close attention.

86 Arist. Poet. 23, 24; Hor. Ars P. 136f.; but note Garvie 1994: 10–11.

87 See Arend 1933, with Parry's review, reprinted in M. Parry 1971: 404–7; Hainsworth 1969: 25–6; bibliography given in Schwinge 1991: 485.

88 Fenik 1968, 1974; also e.g. Krischer 1971, and M. W. Edwards in a series of papers (e.g. 1966, 1968, 1975, 1980, 1987b; also his survey article in 1992). For hospitality scenes see now Reece 1993.

89 Armstrong 1958; for another aspect see Segal 1971a.

90 See e.g. Notopoulos 1949, 1950, 1964; Lord 1953, and other paper collected or cited in Lord 1991. A more moderate position is adopted by Hainsworth 1970. For valuable surveys of work on formulae, see M. W. Edwards 1986, 1988.

91 Note Pope 1963; Hoekstra 1965: ch. 1; Young 1967; Whallon 1969: A. Parry 1972; N. Austin 1975: ch. 1; N. J. Richardson 1987; Shive 1987. See also the discussions cited in A. Parry 1971: xxxiii and xlix n. 3.

92 The expression derives from a famous line in Horace's Ars Poetica, in which the Roman poet admits that literary perfection, however desirable, is not always attainable: et idem / indignor quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus, / verum operi longo fas est obrepere somnum (Ars P. 358–60: ‘I even feel aggrieved, when good Homer nods; but when a work is long, a drowsy mood is understandable’). Pope's riposte to this tag should be taken seriously by critics: ‘Those oft are stratagems which error seem, / nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream’ (An Essay on Criticism, 179–80).

93 Page 1959: 305.

94 Scodel 1999 is a stimulating account of the question of inconsistency in literature, especially epic and tragedy.

95 For Parry's fullest defence of the statement that the meaning of the epithets was unimportant, see M. Parry 1971: 118–72; see also the briefer account at 1971: 304–7. But Parry himself allowed for some cases of deliberate choice or adjustment (1971: 156–61), and the argument is taken further by Hainsworth 1969: 29–30; Macleod 1982: 35–42; R. B. Rutherford 1992: 49–57. For Penelope's fat hand, see Woodhouse 1930: 200–1, who wails ‘Oh Homer! How could you?’; defended by N. Austin 1975: 73.

96 Sale 1963; Russo 1968; Tsagarakis 1982, esp. 32 ff.; cf. Taplin 1992. On technical aspects of the evolution of the formulaic system, see Hainsworth 1962, 1978; and especially the magisterial account in Hainsworth 1993: 1–31; also Finkelberg 1989. For a range of approaches, see Visser 1987, 1988; Russo 1997; Bakker 2005.

97 Griffin 1986, with de Jong 1988; de Jong 1987a; Martin 1989; Mackie 1996 (on differentiation of Trojan speech); Finkelberg 2012.

98 J. M. Foley 1991: 7; brief account of his views in Foley 1997; for detailed readings see J. M. Foley 1991: 135–89 (on Iliad 24), 1999: 241–62 (on Odyssey 23). Kelly 2007b systematically applies this method to Iliad 8; for good examples of his method see pp. 183–4 (imagined third-person speakers), 205–8 (on nēpioi), 250–3 (prayers).

99 E.g. J. M. Foley 1997: 168. See also Graziosi and Haubold 2005, esp. 49–60, on ‘resonance’.

100 M. Parry 1971: chs. 13–17 (17 by A. B. Lord), with A. Parry 1971: xxxiv–xli, xlvii–xlviii; Lord 1960. See further Finnegan 1977; Hainsworth 1993: 32–53 (a valuable essay on ‘The Iliad as heroic poetry’); and, for broadening of the comparative picture, e.g. Hatto 1980; J. M. Foley 1991, 2005.

101 But important new work on the South Slavic traditions may require modification of current assumptions: see Danek 1998: 7–23; Danek 2010; and esp. Čolaković 2006.

102 As is too eagerly attempted by Kirk 1962: 95–8. Contrast Thomas 1993: ch. 3.

103 Lord 1953, and elsewhere; accepted e.g. by Janko 1992: 37–8, and re-argued in Janko 1998.

104 A view championed by Bowra 1930, and by Adam Parry in an important paper (A. Parry 1966); contrast e.g. Taplin 1992: 8–9, 35–7. My own preference has always been for this theory; for others of the same opinion, see Garvie 1994: 16 n. 51, and now West 2011c, esp. 10–14.

105 Powell 1991; for criticism see Woodard 1997.

106 Jeffery 1961: 1–42 with addenda on pp. 425–7 in 1990 edition by Johnston, against the early dating proposed by Near Eastern experts such as J. Naveh; Burkert 1992: 25–33. See also Heubeck 1979.

107 Cost: IG i3 476.289–90; cf. Jeffery 1961: 56–7; Jensen 1980: 92–5. Burkert 1992 supports leather.

108 This was a slow process, as shown by the paucity of representations in art and certain echoes in literature. See Burkert 1987; Snodgrass 1998; Burgess 2001: ch. 2.

109 Alcman PMG 77 and 80; Alcaeus F 44 Lobel-Page; Stesich. SLG, esp. S11, revised in Davies, PMGF I; cf. Page 1973b. On the dating of Stesichorus, see D. A. Campbell 1991: 2–4; see further Burkert 1987.

110 Pl. Hipparch. 228b; Isoc. Paneg. 159; Lycurg. 1.102; Cic. De or. 3.137; Merkelbach 1952; Davison 1955; Janko 1992: 29–32; Lewis 1988: 292. For a different approach see Nagy 1995; he sees the story of the Pisistratean recension as in effect a myth describing a gradual process by which the text became fixed.

111 Jensen 1980, esp. ch. 7.

112 Janko 1992: 37.

113 Hes. fr. 357 M-W seems to anticipate the image, but applying it to the bard; contrast Pind. Nem. 2.2. See Patzer 1952; Sealey 1957; Herington 1985: 167–76; Burkert 1987; M. L. West 2010.

114 For the emergence of interpretation of Homer by non-poets, see Theagenes of Rhegium (fragments in Diels–Kranz 8), esp. B2, discussing the battle of the gods in Iliad 20; later, e.g. Ar. Banqueters fr. 233 K-A; Prt. 80A29, 30; Plut. Vit. Alc. 7.1. See N. J. Richardson 1975. On the origins of criticism, see Ford 2002.

115 See esp. Hainsworth's 1993 commentary and the earlier bibliography on his p. 155, esp. Klingner 1940; Danek 1988 (with Danek 2012, in English).

116 Gregory Nagy in a long series of publications (e.g. Nagy 1996, 2003, 2010) has argued that a creative performance tradition for Homer continued long after Pisistratus, and that many differing versions of the epics existed, so that modern attempts to establish or reconstruct an early fixed text are misguided. This argument has found little support: see the criticisms by Finkelberg 2000, with Nagy's reply in Nagy 2001. The tradition of Homer is far less ‘multiform’ than some other oral traditions (examples in M. L. West 2001b: 11).

117 Other cases are for the most part much shorter. In antiquity there were controversies about so-called Athenian interpolations (Arist. Rh. 1375b30, Dieuchidas FGrH 485F6 = D. L. i.57; cf. Allen 1924: 241 ff.), but the Athenians makes so small a showing in the Iliad that it is hard to suppose that much was added. Suspect passages on this score include 1.265, 2.553–5, 11.602–4. On manuscript evidence for interpolation see Bolling 1925 and Apthorp 1980a: the problems are too complex to discuss here. M. L. West 2001b: 12–14, with wonderful confidence, sets out a catalogue of Iliadic interpolations grouped in categories.

118 On textual criticism in general see M. L. West 1973b; Reynolds and Wilson 1991: ch. 6. For more detail on the Homeric tradition, see Davison 1962a; M. L. West 2001b; Haslam 1997, 2011. On the Odyssey, see S. West 1988: 33–48.

119 The ‘wild papyri’ are edited by S. West 1967; for a brief account, see E. J. Turner 1968: 106–12. D. Sutton n.d. is an online database ‘Homer and the Papyri’, now overseen by G. Nagy.

120 Besides the variations in manuscript evidence, there is the supplementary testimony of ancient quotations: for a conspicuous case of a passage preserved only in one source, not represented in manuscripts or papyri, see 9.458–61, quoted by Plutarch as excised by Aristarchus; these lines may well be authentic (cf. Janko 1992: 27–8; Hainsworth 1993: ad loc.). On the Alexandrian scholars, see Fraser 1972: 447–79; Davison 1962a: 222–6; Pfeiffer 1968: part 2, esp. chs. 2 and 6; Janko 1992: 22–9 (with invaluable bibliography and lists of examples of their judgements); M. L. West 2001b: 33–85; F. Schironi, entries in Finkelberg 2011, under ‘Alexandrian scholarship’ and the names of scholars.

121 Nagy 1992, esp. 30–1; Seaford 1994,:144–54, part of a complex argument, many stages of which I cannot accept. Griffin 1995: 8 attempts a brief response to Seaford. See also Sourvinou-Inwood 1995: 94–103.

122 Burkert 1985, 119–25; Gould 1994.

123 E.g. Hägg 1983; for tales of the ends of the earth see also Romm 1992.

124 See Hornblower 1994: 7–13 for historiography, with Marincola 2007; Radermacher 1951: 1–10 for rhetoric. Satyrus, Life of Euripides fr. 39, col. vii, 23 ff. Arrighetti, comments on the line of descent from Homer to New Comedy. Homer as Ocean: Quint. 10.1.46; F. Williams 1978: 98–9.

125 Solon F 29 West; Hes. Theog. 27–8; Thalmann 1984: 147–9; Pratt 1993.

126 Cf. Curtius 1953: ch. 11.

127 Pease 1955–8 on Cic. Nat. D. 1.42.

128 Cf. Easterling 1984; Goldhill 1986, esp. ch. 6.

129 For mutual rivalry and criticism among poets see e.g. Simonides on Pittacus, PMG 542, and on Cleobulus, ibid. 581; also the stories of a contest between Homer and Hesiod. See further Griffith 1990; Buxton 1994: 31.

130 Pfeiffer 1968 is the fundamental reference work, supplemented by N. J. Richardson 1975 and esp. 1993: 25–49. See also Lamberton and Keaney 1992.

131 Hom. Probl.: frr. 142–79 Rose; Poet. 25, with commentaries; Carroll 1895.

132 Translation from Hubbard 1972 (slightly modified). See further Halliwell 1986: 10–17 and ch. 7.

133 For the Hellenistic critics whose views are quoted by the scholia, see the works cited in n. 114 above; also Kirk 1985: 38–43; Meijering 1987; Nünlist 2010.

134 The monumental edition of most of the scholia to the Iliad is Erbse 1969–88, supplemented for the D scholia by van Thiel 2000. A new edition of the Odyssey scholia has begun to appear (Pontani 2007; for books not yet covered one must still go back to Dindorf 1855). For guidance on this and other editions, see Dickey 2007: 18–28. On their critical criteria and preoccupations N. J. Richardson 1980 is invaluable. Cf. Snipes 1988 (similes); N. J. Richardson 1993: 35–40; see also Heath 1989: ch. 8. Griffin 1980 also makes use of the scholia, but tends to praise or damn them according to the extent that they confirm his views.

135 No attempt can be made here to survey the history of Homeric reception, which would embrace much of the history of western literature. Helpful starting points include Thomson 1962; F. M. Turner 1981; France 2000; Graziosi and Greenwood 2007; Grafton, Most, and Settis 2010; Hardwick and Stray 2008; also, on the Odyssey, E. Hall 2008. Eight of the essays in R. L. Fowler 2004 deal with Homeric reception. For translations, see pp. 134–5.

136 N. J. Richardson 1980: 283–7; M. W. Edwards 1987a: ch. 15.

137 Finley 1954 (rev. 1978) and Redfield 1975 are particularly important works in this area; more recently, van Wees 1992b; Raaflaub 1991, 1993; D. Cairns 1993 (and more recent articles, e.g. 2003, 2011); Osborne 2004.

138 Burkert 1985 (English translation of his 1977 book) is a rich store of insights. See also Parker 1983: 66–70, 130–43, etc.; Griffin 1980: chs. 5–6; new ch. in Redfield 1975 (1994 edition); Bremmer 1994, Versnel 2011 (very wide-ranging; for Homer see esp. ch. 2). See further Kearns 2004, 2011; and pp. 64–70 below.

139 M. W. Edwards 1987a: chs. 11–14; Griffin 1980: ch. 1. Rather differently Lynn-George 1988, e.g. 252–72 on grave mounds and monuments. On metaphor, see M. Parry 1971: 365–75, 414–18; Moulton 1979; M. W. Edwards 1991: 48–53. For gesture, facial expression, and related matters, see Lateiner 1995; D. Cairns 2005.

140 Genette 1980; Bal 1985; de Jong 1987a introduced this approach to Homeric studies (also in many other papers, some listed in the bibliography); the method is applied on a grand scale to the Odyssey in de Jong 2001.

141 Pragmatic treatment in Griffin 1986; more theoretically grounded, de Jong 1987a; S. Richardson 1990; di Benedetto 1994, part 1. See also M. W. Edwards 1991: introduction, 1–10.

142 Lowe 2000.